Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC to review!
Rating (on a scale of 1 to 5, 5 being excellent)
Quality of writing: 4
Pace: 3
Plot development: 3
Characters: 3
Enjoyability: 3
Ease of Reading: 3

Overall rating: 3 out of 5

At first, I was irritated with how long the main plot took to start in the book, then my interest was caught. Then, the story went off the rails into gore and nonsensical explanations or character actions. DNF at 63%.

This was such a wild, unsettling book! The three main characters are each strong and unique in their own ways, and the world that they live in is as claustrophobic as it is fantastic. The Starving Saints kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish, never knowing what was real or who could be trusted. I never knew I could love a medieval horror book filled with murder and cannibalism, but here we are! I wish there was more to the relationships between the three leads and I was a little confused at times, but overall this was a fun, creepy ride!

The cover to this is beautiful, but the story was crazy. It has to do with these people living in a castled there's 6 months of food running low and no sign of rescue for these people. As they decide to maybe eliminate a few of each other, the sick become healed and some weird stuff start happening.

So, um . . . wow.

This is a twisty and dark story with three FMCs and a lot of gore and stomach-churning descriptions, and I enjoyed every bit of it.

In Aymar, the people have been under siege for far too long. The food rations, already barely enough to sustain life, will run our completely in just a few days. Phosyne works day and night to try and come up with a second miracle (the first one was transforming the filthy water in the castle into something safe to drink) but it is not going well. The king decides to place his trusted knight, Ser Voyne, as a chaperone of sorts to make sure that Phosyne is actually trying her best.

Voyne does not want to play nursemaid to the crazy ass nun, she'd rather keep proving herself with her sword, but one does not say no to a king. Meanwhile servant girl Traila hides as she plots revenge against Voyne.

When The Constant Lady and her Saints appear just as all hope begins to vanish, the people are grateful and indulge after wanting for so long. But our three leads can smell the rot in the Lady's gifts, and must work together to make sure this isn't the end for everyone.

I absolutely loved this book - the prose is dark and descriptive, the atmosphere is a physical weight, and our three main characters are impeccably drawn. I remember staying up super late to finish The Death of Jane Lawrence, and The Starving Saints with its glorious cover deserves a similar rating from me.

The Starving Saints is a captivating read for those who appreciate dark fantasy infused with horror elements. Its atmospheric setting and complex characters provide a solid foundation for an engaging story; however, pacing issues and occasional character development shortcomings prevent it from reaching its full potential. For fans of medieval horror looking for something unique yet flawed, this book is worth exploring but may not resonate with everyone.

New York’s Hottest Club is Caitlin Starling’s fictional fortress, Aymar Castle. Besieged by enemy forces, this place has it all: toxic lesbian situationships, bacchanalian feasts, meat of questionable origin, entities living in the walls, and a madwoman that has apparently forgotten that bathing is an option.

Freaks who love Gideon the Ninth (myself included) will find plenty to enjoy here, particularly if they love Gideon for the grotesque, the macabre, and the spiritual and sapphic devotion of it all.

Books this weird and dreamlike tend to stray into unintelligibility but Starving Saints never lacked in clarity, even as characters began to lose their grip on reality.

Give me medieval queer cannibalistic fever dreams forever. Caitlin Starling truly understands the power of slow, eerie, mindfuckery as a horror genre, and though it may not be for everyone, her approach is definitely for me.

All types of horror have their value, but the thing I love about Starling’s books is that they function in individual and particular narrative pockets. Though there is plenty of moral discussion to be had about meaning or metaphor, they’re almost less profound and reflective and more somewhat escapist in their contained scope and vibe. They feel truly like dreams, not only in their confused what-the-fuck logic but in the way they feel like leaving the world behind to go exist in some super specific crafted reality. They aren’t neat or tidy and they aren’t especially linear or purposeful in terms of impact. But they are an absolute weird ass vibe and I love them for it.

And I loved getting to dream away the time in this world of bacchanalian madness in a claustrophobic castle with bees, trickster beings, nuns, cannibalism, and fucked up complicated lesbian yearning. I had been craving this exact concoction of honey and wine and blood.

Thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

CW: cannibalism, blood & gore, violence, dismemberment, mutilation, dead bodies, murder, death, character death, claustrophobia, alcohol, death of father (past), grief, drowning, emesis

This book was absolutely amazing! I love when I get the opportunity to read creative and unique horror. Caitlin Starling drags you right into the bowels of a medieval castle, kept under siege by an enemy nation. On the brink of starvation, the castle is looking for a miracle, but when one comes, is it actually going to free them or just enslave them to a new kind of hunger? You should definitely read this book and find out! If you like horror that has a historical element, unique magic systems, and deeply flawed but lovable FMCs, The Starving Saints is the book for you!

This book has everything. Powerful, sapphic characters, creepy religious iconography, magic, cannibalism, horror. This story might not be for everyone, but it was most definitely for me.

The Starving Saints by Caitlin Starling is incredibly unsettling. A castle under siege is desperate for food and their Saints arrive out of thin air with an abundance of it. Only, the food isn’t what it seems, and something isn’t right when the people begin to eat.

The writing and lore are amazing, the characters are complex and flawed, and the vibes are OFF in the best way. The ending was a bit confusing, but not enough to take away from the experience.

Unrelated to the book itself, I guessed early on that the author was a fanfiction writer, and it didn’t take much digging to find out that she IS, and I’ve read quite a bit of her work already.

I’ll be preordering this and yelling about it to anyone who will listen for the foreseeable future, and I’ve already requested the author’s other books from my library.

This was a wild ride of a book that I couldn't put down.
We bounce between our three female protagonists, whose lives are all intertwined in this hellish landscape they are trapped in.
I didn't think I would ever enjoy something that was "medieval horror" but here I am obsessed.
I loved the horror and grotesque imagery that Starling was giving us throughout the whole novel.
I know for sure I'm going to want a hard copy for my selves!

Thanks to NetGalley & Harper Voyager for this eARC.

***Thank you to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the ARC of this upcoming book***
An extremely unique and above average fantasy tale about a sorceress who is called upon to conjure food from nowhere during a siege with no end in sight. Unsurprisingly, things do not go right.

I came to really enjoy the characters and writing of this author and will keep an eye out for her upcoming works!

This book was an experience. I'm not a regular reader of horror, I appreciate the genre but my ventures are more occasional and I'm glad I got the chance to read The Starving Saints — it was also my first experience reading Caitlin Starling although I've been meaning to pick up one of her books for years. I really enjoyed this story, it made me want to scream sometimes and I believe having this kind of emotional reactions to a book is a positive thing because it means that I care about the characters and where their stories are going. I don't think I've ever read anything like this before, it was unpredictable and the way she worked with the elements she brought in this books felt fresh and interesting. Also, what is there not to like in a sapphic polycule with a side of cannibalism and a dash of magic?

An unfortunate DNF for me. I loved The Death of Jane Lawrence, but this is now the second DNF from this author for me. (The other being Last to Leave the Room.) I wish this worked for me, but the pacing just wasn't clicking for me and I was having a difficult time getting into the story.

This is a dark medieval fantasy-horror of seige, of idolatry, of cannibalism, of twisting the rules of reality. I aboslutely loved the way the Lady and the Saints were portrayed — I love fantasy books with worldbuilding that heavily takes religion into account, but specifically when either it isn't clear whether the gods are real, or it isn't clear whether the gods are gods. This is obviously in the second camp, which is such a fun dynamic between the characters and their religion to read. The atmosphere is tense and mysterious and perfect for this story. I was a little confused at some times, but that could have just been me and my personal ebook issues coupled with the fact that I read half of this on a plane. But I still highly recommend if magical medieval cannibalism appeals to you in even the slightest!

This story is set in Aymar Castle, which has been under siege for six months, and food has been running low with no hope in sight. The book follows three different POVs: Phosyne, Ser Voyne, and Treila. Phosyne, noted as a mad woman/heretic, works away in her room trying to make a miracle for the King by discovering how to make food from nothing. Previously, she had solved the problem when their water supplies killed the people of Aymar, so the king believed she can do it again. When she hasn't produced results, he assigns Ser Voyne, a female knight, to make sure she is working on solving the problem and to report back to the king with updates on her. While all this is going on, we have Treila, who is working as servent, but was once the daughter of a nobleman, who was killed on orders by the king and whose head was cut by Ser Voyne. She is hell-bent on revenge. All of a sudden when Phosyne is working away, her and Ser Voyne hear a noise and four figures appear in the courtyard appearing as the Saints that this group worships: The Constant Lady, The Loving Saint, The Absolving Saint, and the Whispering Saint. This group brings food to the people. However, it isn't what it seems, and our three heroines must band together to save Aymar from this horror that is now plaguing them.

The story is slow in the beginning due to it flipping back and forth between the three women as it had to build their backgrounds, but I will say it is worth it as this story is INSANE. The book is not for the lighthearted as it gets pretty graphic in the things people will do when hungry and desperate - some graphic killings as well. I haven't read any other books by this author, but it definitely made me want to check out and see what else she has written.

Thanks, netgalley and avon & harper voyager for this eArc! This was such a deliciously creepy story!

Ayamar has been under siege for over a year, and the situation is DIRE. The king has commanded a heretical alchemist, Phosyne, to deliver a fresh miracle to the keep and sets his knight, Ser Voyne, to assure her compliance. Every inhabitant is holding on to wasting threads when the Constant Lady and her saintly companions enter the keep through some miracle and begin to provide aid to all... but at a cost. Trelia has already lost so much but may have to sacrifice more to get a long sought revenge against the king and his prize knight, and the saints are ruining her plans. Things creep and crawl and begin to change, and the triad of women needs to take a stand.

I loved the inverted (perverted?) chivalry in this story - christianity isn't the religion, but the devotion is there to religion, to origin, to defense of the realm. Voyne is a perfect knight (but with so many conflicts), Phosyne is weak in need of defense (or is she?), and Treilia is a gentle lady (and rat killer supreme). The alchemical magic system, the religion, and saints were so unique and amazing. When things started to go bad in the keep, it was so deeply unsettling, and there was SO MUCH SAPPHIC SEXUAL TENSION THEY SHOULD PUT IT IN THE SUMMARY SO I AM. This would be a five-star if i didn't lose the thread in the resolution a little, but i still really enjoyed it and would recommend it.

A nun turned sorceress

Threatening religious icons
a hungry, unnamed malevolence beneath the castle
A really tall lady knight

YEARNING
Cannibalism
An vengeful girl
dynamics of messy, codependent women

Kiss or Kill how do we decide
Power exchanges

As the saints continue to grow in power, all three women are on the brink of confronting their pasts while facing a future filled with uncertainty. Will they manage to stop the saints before the people of Aymar are lost to madness forever? Or will the allure of the Starving Saints pull them deeper into a chaos that feels all too tempting?
this story speaks volumes about desire and human nature. It’s set against a backdrop of dire desperation, where survival leads to unimaginable choices.

What’s truly gripping is how, even within the confines of a castle, the world of Aymar feels vast and immersive thanks to the vivid descriptions. The plot is shaping up to be highly unique; I’ve encountered stories featuring dangerous “visitors” before, but this narrative hints at a profound depth that is worth exploring. The graphic portrayal of desperation is just the beginning.

Each character is driven by different motivations: Treila’s fierce survival instinct, Ser Voyne’s unwavering loyalty and bravery, and Phosyne’s complex relationship with value—both nothing and everything at once.

With intriguing elements like lady knights, cannibals, and a complicated lesbian throuple, I can’t help but feel drawn in. The tension and depravity add layers to an already captivating atmosphere, making me hopeful for what lies ahead.

the emotions this book will evoke—laughter, tears, gasps, even moments of frustration from interruptions during gripping chapters. This queer medieval fever dream is set to be full of gore, magic, and heart.

I absolutely suggest this book. Think game of thrones brienne of tarth, meets Lord of the rings galadriel, meets yellow jackets Tai & Van.

Truly stunning writing, visual and visceral.

An absolute powerhouse of medieval terror, The Starving Saints has everything you could want in a modern horror novel: gore, drunken cannibalistic feasts, sapphic love triangles! The three women at the heart of this tale - knight Ser Voyne, heretic Phosyne, and servant Treila - are all such good characters. They are multilayered and unique and strong both together and apart. The Constant Lady and Her Saints were truly terrifying, and this book had several moments that made my skin crawl with fear. Definitely recommend this one!

I honestly went into this book not knowing what to expect. I read the description and overall I enjoyed this read. It is very engaging very addicting. I loved the story.